The State of Competitive Intelligence within. New Zealand Private and Public Sector Organisations, страница 40

ƒ The survey respondents acknowledged the reliance on rumours and personal contacts element to form market intelligence by industries who categorised themselves between the $500k to

       $10 million annual company turn-over organisations.                                 

Plans for improving competitiveness

As identified in the last section, the use of rumours and personal contacts were strongly favoured, where 88% of surveyed companies/organisations used this medium as the preferred process and system to remain competitive.  The objective of this section is to examine companies’ and organisations’ plans to improve their competitiveness through the use of competitive intelligence.  Two key elements are examined, the current competitive environment and value and future value of competitive intelligence.

This theme has also been reflected in the content analysis with the use of rumours and personal contacts and a heavy reliance of supplier/vendor tools for benchmarking of competitors and market insights. 

Current competitive environment and value

To analyse the value of competitive intelligence within the current competitive environment, two questions were asked to determine how their companies/organisations were monitoring (i.e. tracking) what the competition is doing or likely to do (Question 22) and the process of using an integrated competitive intelligence system (Question 23). 

Sixty-eight per cent responded that they understood the factor, but this could be managed better by understanding “what the competition is doing or likely to do”.  There were eight responses who indicated that they understood this element and that it was well managed.  There were three responses who believed that this value was neutral. There were similar results when asked if their company/organisation understood their competitiveness, 68% responded that they understood the element, but it could be managed better. There were nine responses who indicated that they understood this element and that it was well managed.  There were overlaps between industries that selected the Understood and are well managed for both questions.

When asked if their companies/organisations were using integrated competitive intelligence systems to improve their monitoring of their competitors (Question 23), 47% believed that integrated competitive intelligence systems were important and enabled them to track their competitors 9% believed that this element was very important.  A total of 44% of respondents believed that having integrated competitive intelligence systems was neutral (29%) or not very important (15%).

The results also identified that there was a ‘gap’ between the value and importance of operating integrated competitive intelligence systems and people supporting competitive intelligence.  For example, 65% of the respondents believe competitive intelligence is very important/important factor

(page 61), while there were 44%, who did not value an integrated competitive intelligence system.  This

split would be a barrier when trying to fully implement competitive intelligence systems.       Future value of competitive intelligence

To determine if this mindset would change, Question 28 asked What do you think would be most likely to help your organisation improve its ability to keep track of what your competitors are doing and of your own competitiveness? 

•  Government assisted programmes & support

•  Use of electronic sources (including the internet) & databases

•  Competitor analysis and audits

•  Use of domestic competitive intelligence sources

•  Use of international competitive intelligence sources

•  Implementation of competitive intelligence systems

•  Training of staff to gather competitive intelligence

•  Use of ‘soft’ information, such as rumours

•  Integration of competitive intelligence and strategy

•  Handling of ethical issues